Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper: Character, Themes, and Symbolism

This essay analyzes Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' focusing on the themes of confinement, female identity, and the impact of societal expectations on women. The essay examines the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper, representing the narrator's limited freedom and the oppressive nature of her environment. It explores the narrator's mental state, the influence of her husband's control, and the story's critique of patriarchal norms. The essay highlights the connection between the narrator and the woman trapped behind the wallpaper, symbolizing the plight of women in a male-dominated society. The essay also references the works of scholars like Turner to provide a comprehensive analysis of the story's themes, character development, and social commentary, providing a deeper understanding of the story's significance and relevance.

1Student name:
Name of the student:
Name of the professor:
Subject:
Date:
The yellow wallpaper
The yellow wallpaper is a story manifesting a woman's struggle in the male-centric
society where the social norms and thinking patter revolves around only one gender. Although it
may seem ambiguous to many readers who are unaware of the author's way of writing, the
treatment to the character is quite fascinating (Gilman).
The yellow wallpaper in the room symbolizes the narrator's confinement on a personal
level who has a controlling husband as well as on a regular level as a woman in a society
controlled by men. In the story, the narrator has an oppressive husband who drives his wife mad
by limiting her desires to help her. The connection with the yellow wallpaper with the narrator
represents the values of a society where a woman must enjoy being at home and doing domestic
jobs.
“I don't like to look out of the windows even--there are so many of those creeping women, and
they creep so fast.
I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?”
The narrator had a desire to write which she was not allowed by her husband. The violent
imagery used in order to describe the yellow wallpaper conveys the impact of the set of rules for
women on women (Turner 58). The wallpaper also symbolizes the narrator's mind which later

2Student name:
perceives a woman in the wallpaper who is imprisoned behind the bar. The woman in the
wallpaper and the narrator can be identified with the same entity as they both are trapped.
“It is the same woman, I know, for she is a1lways creeping, and most women do not creep by
daylight.”
The woman in the yellow wallpaper and the narrator shows the condition of other women of
society who are trapped in the normalized patriarchy of the society.

3Student name:
Work cited:
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper: A Story. Oregan Publishing, 2018.
Turner, Emma. "“The Yellow Wallpaper”: Coloring the Borders of First-Wave
Feminism." ΑΚΦ (2018): 56.